Comparison between 2016 and 2019
Analysis of the most pressing problems afflicting their country, as reported by citizens of Nigeria in 2019, shows that corruption has moved down the list from 3rd to 5th position, while there has been a sharp increase in the level of public concern about security and health issues. Around 9 per cent of Nigerians considered corruption to be the most important problem facing their country, a decrease of more than a third since the 14 per cent recorded in the 2016 survey.
This change could be interpreted as sign of a decline in the importance attributed to corruption, but it could also be that other issues have simply become more pressing in the perception of citizens, in particular crime and insecurity, which climbed from 6th to 2nd in the list of the most important problems affecting the country. The 2019 survey data seem to support the latter, as there has been a universal decrease across the six zones of Nigeria in the share of people that consider corruption to be the most important issue. At the same time, the share of people that consider crime and insecurity to be the most important problem affecting Nigeria has increased significantly across all the country’s zones. Particularly large increases were observed in the northern zones, where as much as 27 per cent (North-West) of the population think that crime and insecurity is the number one problem.
Source: National Bureau of Statistics
